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Commentators always think any breaking ball that gets hit into the seats is a "hanging" breaking ball, but that didn't look so to me on Willingham's first-inning circuit clout. It didn't hang, to my eyes; Stroman just caught far too much plate with it and Willingham did a damn fine piece of hitting.

1) a breaking ball that does not break that much... just slow
2) a breaking ball that is easy to hit as its in the middle of the zone...

I find most announcers use the term for the 2nd case which seems to be what they did here as well. But then again many announcers call a ball that bounces fair into the seats a "ground rule double" so...

Jason Giambi faced Dennis Martinez in his rookie season.
Dennis Martinez faced Carl Yastrzemski in his rookie season.
Carl Yastrzemski faced Early Wynn in his rookie season.
Early Wynn was pitching in MLB only two weeks after WWII started.

Edit: I'm not sure of any other pitches, but Nick Martinez is a rookie this season and faced Jason Giambi. There is your potential link to the future...

I don't see what's so impressive about that. The longest MLB careers are about 24 years. Given one of these players, you'd expect that there would be somebody in the big leagues who has been there for 20 years at their debut and at the end of their career that there would be somebody with 20 years left; there are in most seasons.

Tim McCarver "Rays with no hits tonight so far, some of you might think that is a jinx, but I have never, ever believed that..." pitch thrown, base hit. It's only the 4th inning, but it was hilarious how immediate that hit came after he spoke up.

Through four innings he has a perfect game going, so hopefully this will jinx him.

I guess it did as he gave up a single in the 5th. Then a real weird play, double play grounder hit to 2nd but Josh Rutledge inexplicably broke the wrong way and the ball went through. The runner on 1st wasn't going. It's like a gambler got hold of Rutledge.

Matzek has looked really, really good. The Braves can do that to pitchers they're seeing for the first time (of course, all fans complain about that), but he's throwing hard and his slider is really sharp.

Matt Cain not sharp in the 1st inning: 36 pitches, 21 of which were balls. Nats pounce early 3-0, but could have gotten in some more pounceage if not for Lobaton. I'll take it. Any additional games the Nats win against the Giants at this point in a 4-game series is pure gravy in my book.

Looking like this could be the night where the Nationals finally move back into first place in the National League East. Braves getting hammered by the Rockies (8-0 in the 7th), Nats already out to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning.

Only the Angels can make Tommy Milone feel at home in Anaheim. Just one batter over the minimum through the first three innings, and another out on the bases. Angels have been running into a lot of outs on the bases.

Angels run into YET ANOTHER ####### OUT ON THE BASES. Why why WHY WHY WHY is Pujols going for third against ####### CESPEDES with just one out! Dude's thrown out FOUR GUYS IN TWO WEEKS! STOP ####### RUNNING, YOU ####### FUCKS.

Watching the Mariners broadcast and they just had a graphic of all the player who played in both 1995 and 2014- Jeter, Giambi and Hawkins. LaTroy Hawkins is the longest active major league player, having made his debut on April 29, 1995.